EdgeConneX launches first South American data centre

EdgeConneX has announced a 10-megawatt Edge Data Center in Argentina, its first such project in an emerging market. Sebastian Shehadi and Nicola Bilotta report.

US company EdgeConneX announced on January 17 its first Edge Data Center (EDC) in South America, a move that represents a coup for for Argentina’s government in its drive to attract data centre developers.

The 10-megawatt facility will be located in Buenos Aires, within the Parque Industrial Pilar, one of the largest industrial districts in South America which serves as a hub to hundreds of national and multinational companies.

Together with the Argentina Investment and Trade Promotion Agency (AAICI), Silica Networks (a local telecommunications service provider) and an extensive network of ecosystem and peering partners, the new EDC will offer low-latency connectivity and advanced cloud and communications services previously unavailable in the region.

Francisco Cabrera, Argentina’s minister of production, said the upcoming facility is in line with the country’s Data Center Promotion Project led by the AAICI. In 2017, the AAICI held a number of events aimed at promoting Argentina as an attractive location for the data centre industry. With its moderate climate and low risk of natural disasters, Argentina provides a favourable environment for such technology.

Mr Cabrera said: “The EDC will provide the region with economic growth through the introduction of cutting-edge technology and connectivity, making Argentina a more attractive location for data investment by enterprises across a wide range of industries."

EdgeConneX has a network of more than 40 data centre facilities in Europe and North America combined with more than 3000 smaller points of presence. Argentina is a strategic location for data centre expansion since it serves as a landing spot for several major submarine cable systems that connect it to the US and its South American neighbours.

EdgeConneX has global ambitions and is planning to open a second EDC in Santiago, Chile. The company told fDi: “We are continuously evaluating underserved markets around the world and [select] our locations based on where our customers want us to go... We do not build our sites based on speculation. We [are] exploring additional sites in South America, Europe and Asia.”

The company’s most recent spree of greenfield FDI was in 2016, when it invested $1.225bn in seven projects across western Europe, according to greenfield investment monitor fDi Markets. In 2017, its only greenfield FDI project was in Toronto, Canada, and was worth $45m. The new EDC in Argentina is EdgeConneX’s first greenfield foreign investment in an emerging market.

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